A question to Putin

By Nur Jahan, Chittagong
21 September 2004, 18:00 PM
A very tragic incident happened at Beslan School in Russia in which 322 people died and hundreds were injured, half of them were children. Our deep sympathy for the families of those who lost their dear ones . We believe that this heart rending tragedy could have been averted if Russian President Vladimir Putin had not taken so hard a stance and negotiated with the hostage-takers. If their demand of withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya and release of Chechen fighters arrested in June in Ingushetia, another neighbouring republic of Chechnya, were met, those innocent children would not have lost their lives. But to President Putin those lives meant nothing. It seems that he is a staunch supporter of President Bush, likes to walk in his footsteps, a ruthless, hard-liner not caring about other people.

When the former Soviet Union broke up, many Soviet republics became independent but Chechnya was unlucky though it agreed to allow transportation of oil through it to Russia, independence was not given to it. When Putin became President he acted most unwisely and preferred use of force instead of tackling the situation prudently. He stationed 150,000 troops in Chechnya, who are making life miserable for the Chechens. Atrocities, human rights abuse are common. The soldiers unleashed violence and a great number of people died, women lost their husbands and children, there are innumerable families which have lost their dear ones. So, it is natural that they will be consumed with the fire to take revenge, those women, who are being called as 'Black widows' have become suicide bombers because they have nothing to live for.

I have a question to Russian President Vladimir Putin, what he would have done if his wife and children and other dear ones were in that school which was under seize? Would he have handled it that way which killed so many people? I think not, and wonder why the people of Russia are not protesting his action.